Lexical Decomposition of Verbs and the Notion of an Abstract State

This paper will propose a novel semantic and syntactic analysis of stative verbs, more specifically abstract state verbs like 'need', 'believe', 'know', 'own', 'owe', and 'lack'. On that analysis, such verbs have an underlying structure on which they are complex predicates consisting of the light verb HAVE and a noun for a trope-like thing (a trope or attitudinal, modal or intensional object), a structure that is also input to semantic interpretation. Thus, 'need a coat' is underlyingly 'have need (of) a coat'. The analysis accounts for restrictions on adverbial modifiers of abstract states verbs and surprising constraints on explicit property-referring terms, NPs of the sort the property of needing a coat. The paper advocates a notion of a property that is fundamentally different from the notions familiar from the philosophical literature (natural, non-natural properties, abundant, sparse properties). It also suggests that that notion of a property is as innate as constraints of universal grammar, given a generative perspective.